1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a blade member, an image forming apparatus and a process cartridge.
2. Description of the Related Art
In electrophotographic image forming apparatuses, residual toner remaining on the surface of a photoreceptor even after a toner image thereon is transferred onto a recording material or an intermediate transfer medium is removed therefrom using a cleaner.
Strip-shaped cleaning blades made of an elastic material such as polyurethane rubbers are typically used for such a cleaner because of having advantages such that the cleaner has simplified structure and good cleanability. Among such cleaning blades, a cleaning blade in which one end thereof is supported by a supporter, and an edge of the other end is contacted with a surface of a photoreceptor to block and scrape off residual toner on the photoreceptor, thereby removing the residual toner from the surface of the photoreceptor.